A culture of learning

A new way of learning

Our department was well poised to move to online learning quickly, as we were called on to do in March. Training in Clinical Research program director Jeff Martin, MD, MPH had already put much course material online to make it easier to reach students abroad, and Isabel Elaine Allen, PhD who teaches a core biostatistics course, has also taught through an online university. Our success number is zero: The program lost zero students during this challenging time. Five PhD students received NIH F31 fellowships in 2020. Our all-time success rate with these grants is 92%. Three PhD students received degrees after defending their dissertations online, and we recruited six new students. We received a T32 award from the NIH’s National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities to provide training in advanced data analytics to predoctoral researchers studying behavioral and social determinants of health. The Data Science Training to Advance Behavioral and Social Science Expertise for Health Disparities Research (DaTABASE) program is a collaboration between our department, Baker Computation Health Sciences, and the Center for Health and Community. The program seeks to prepare graduates to apply advanced analytic tools to novel data sets for health disparities research.

The Department received continued support through a T32 award from the NIH'S National Cancer Institute for our post-doctoral training program in molecular and genetic epidemiology of cancer. Because the current era of cancer research seeks to understand the genetic and environmental causes of carcinogenesis, there is an increasing need for individuals with multi-disciplinary training across molecular biology, oncology, medicine, genetics, epidemiology and biostatistics. This program supports rich multi-disciplinary learning and research collaboration.

Photo credit: Elisabeth Fall

Master’s program expansion

To keep up with trends in science, the Department has added two specialized tracks to our MAS program: implementation science and data science. The explosion of available and complex data in biomedicine and related streams have turned data science into a high-demand area of expertise. We’ve also responded to growing concern that the tremendous advances we have achieved in diagnosing, treating and preventing disease have not reached all who need them by rolling out an implementation science track focused on applying clinical research in real-world settings.

Photo credit: Elisabeth Fall

HIV-associated malignancy research center for career development in East Africa

A global collaboration led by Jeff Martin, MD, MPH, secured a $5-million NIH U54 extension grant to support developing researchers in East Africa who are finding new ways to prevent, diagnose and provide care for common cancers, specifically those related to HIV and HPV. With the additional funding, a collaboration between UCSF, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and the Kenya Medical Research Institute will expand to include Duke University, Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Library of Medicine, Moi University in Kenya and Muhimbili University in Tanzania.

Photo credit: Susan Merrell

Targeting COVID-19 Disparities in Local ESL Classrooms

Margaret Handley, PhD, has been collaborating with Maricel Santos, EdD, at San Francisco State since 2005 to provide quality health-literacy content for ESL instructors to include in their classes. During the height of the pandemic, Handley and Santos created COVID-19 modules with their ESL teacher colleague Maria Jose Bastias, and received $25,000 through the University of California Office of the President to expand that work. The project lays the groundwork for non-English speaking Latinx and others to have a more meaningful understanding of health information and to help shape effective public health messaging on COVID-19.

Photo credit: Barbara Ries

Supporting the Navajo Nation

To help accelerate the translation of medical research and evidence into practice, the Department offers support and mentorship for UCSF junior faculty in how best to conduct patient-centered outcomes research within learning health systems. Four program participants, Tasce Bongiovanni, MD, MPP, MHS, Will Brown, PhD, DrPH, MA, James Harrison, PhD and Matt Pantell, MD, MS interviewed 37 clinicians and leaders from UCSF Health about the health system’s efforts to partner with the Navajo Nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The groups developed a series of recommendations for academic medical centers seeking to partner vulnerable communities during healthcare crises, which is being reviewed for publication.

Photo credit: Barbara Ries

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